What is a Mobile Phone?
by My Clone
Summary: James and Lily are married and have moved in to their new house, which is filled with muggle gadgets that James is still learning about. In which James discovers a mobile phone. Includes James being convinced that the mobile phone is a living thing AU-tim


**Disclaimer: Yes! I am JKR! (I wish!)**

**A/N: Hope you enjoy it!**

Ok, mum. Yes, mum, I'll remember. _Yes._ Bye." Lily flipped her mobile phone shut, rolling her eyes as she thought about her nagging mother.

"What is that you were talking into, Lily?" James asked, standing in front of Lily with a confused look on his face.

Lily and James had just been married and had moved into their own house, which was filled with Muggle gadgets that he was still learning about.

"This is a mobile phone, James," replied Lily patiently, preparing herself for an hour of questions about a mobile phone from James.

"A mobile phone…" James muttered to himself. "What does it do?" he asked, excited to find out about the mysteriously small gadget in Lily's hand.

"It's used to communicate with people," Lily said, demonstrating by flipping her phone open again and scrolling down the list of phone numbers to show James.

James moved closer to Lily to look at the phone, his face all lit up. "You mean like Floo powder?" he asked, looking at Lily expectantly.

"Well, not exactly…" Lily began, wondering how to start telling James exactly how mobile phones worked, but stopped herself, foreseeing the torture of questions she would have go through.

"Actually, it's something like that," she changed midway, smiling at James. "But you don't see the face of the person you're talking to."

James' face fell a little, as the prospect of investigating the cell phone began to sound less appealing. He had always admired Muggles for the weird gadgets they invented to replace the lack of magic in their lives, but he didn't think a gadget like this was quite up to their usual standards. Even Floo powder was better; you could even see the person's face.

Looking at James' disappointed face, Lily hurriedly added, "It's not just talking. You can take photos, play games and do loads of other stuff."

"Take photos?" he asked, now excited again.

Lily rolled her eyes. In the Wizarding World, photos could move, and she just couldn't understand why James was excited about pictures that didn't move.

"Can I look at it?" he asked, stretching out a hand for it.

Lily handed him the phone, and left James staring at it to indulge in some other housework.

James held the phone carefully, like it was a baby and slowly put it down on the table in the living room. Then, seating himself on the sofa, he stared at the cell phone with a curious expression on his face. Slowly, he stretched out a hand and touched the phone with one finger, as if he expected it to explode any moment.

After prodding it a few times to make sure that it was quite safe for him to use, he scooped the hand phone into his hands and tentatively pressed down the joystick. The menu popped onto the screen and an excited grin appeared on James' face. He read the features shown on the menu and having by then understood the function the joystick served, he moved the joystick to the left to select the camera feature and pressed it down.

On the screen appeared what was in front of him and he smiled. So the Muggle camera was the same as the camera they used in the Wizarding World. He could use this. Just to experiment with it, he took a picture of his favourite Muggle gadget till now: the television. There were no tricks to it either.

With some confidence, he turned the camera lens towards himself, struck on one of his poses and prepared to press down the joystick, when- "Beep!"

James jumped and the mobile phone almost slipped out of his hands. Lily hadn't told him that the phone made sounds as well. Holding it with his forefinger and thumb, as if it might injure him, he jogged to the kitchen, where Lily was sitting, surrounded by utensils and boxes and bottles.

For a moment, he stared at the mess Lily was in, and then, seeming to remember the phone again, he told Lily in a frightened voice, "Lily, your, um, phone just cried out when I tried to take a photo using it!"

"Wha-" Lily asked, looking at James worriedly, and then understanding what must have happened, she said, "Oh that… That was a beep. It does that when somebody sends a message."

"A message?" James asked confusedly, though relieved that the phone wasn't angry with him.

"Yeah…" Lily replied, reaching out for her hand phone. James handed it over, staring as she punched a few keys and gave it back to him.

"What did you just do?" James asked, beginning one of his long questionnaires again.

"I sent a message back to the person who sent it." she said, seating herself back on the floor where she had made a space for herself in the middle of the items on the floor.

"Who was the person who sent it?" James asked, now suspicious.

"James!" Lily cried exasperatedly. _Why couldn't he just go and look at the phone?_ "It was Alice," she said with a note of impatience in her voice, referring to their half blood friend.

"Ok," James said, now happy and went back into the living room, excited about the phone once again.

He sat himself back on the sofa and pressed the 'back' key and the menu came onto the screen again. This time, he selected 'games' and his grin grew wider as a whole list of games appeared. He scrolled down the list, deciding what to play, and then finally selected one.

Reading the instructions, he was just about to begin playing when the phone's ring tone started to play and it started to vibrate. James jumped again. This phone even moved! Now, convinced that the phone was a 'living thing' as he had learnt during his Muggle studies classes at Hogwarts, and was angry with him for pressing it, he jogged to the kitchen, shifting the phone from one hand to the other.

Lily looked up at the sound of James footsteps, and grew worried again when she saw the frightened look on James' face. "Lily," he began. "Your phone is angry with me!"

He showed her the phone that was vibrating in his hands and still ringing. Stifling her laughter, Lily took the phone from him and flipped her phone open and spoke into the phone.

Meanwhile, James stared at her, wondering why the phone disliked him. It behaved properly with Lily; just not with him. What did it have against purebloods?

"Bye," Lily ended the call and turned back to James, who was sitting on a chair with a hurt expression on his face.

Realising that Lily had stopped talking on the phone, James started complaining about it. "Lily! Your phone doesn't like me! Every time I press something, it starts making weird sounds and moves about to get away from me! Why didn't you tell me that it was a living thing?"

At this, Lily burst out laughing, causing James to look confused and quite certain that she was siding with the phone and not him.

Calming down, Lily explained, "The phone isn't a living thing, James. It just vibrates and rings when someone calls and beeps when someone sends me a message. It's to let me know that I've got a call or a message."

Seeing that James was still upset over the phone, she offered to call Remus and let him speak to James. At this, James brightened up and waited impatiently as Lily called Remus.

Remus picked up the phone and Lily whispered, "Hey, Remus. James is making a fuss over my mobile phone. Could you distract him while I go and finish up some housework?"

James snatched the phone from her and yelled into the phone, "Hi Remus!"

However, after that he lowered his voice, and Lily assumed that Remus had threatened to end the call if he shouted into the phone.

James plopped down onto the sofa and started babbling away to Remus about Sirius and suddenly, forgetting that he had the phone in his hand, he lifted his hand to run it through his messy back hair.

And then came the sound of something dropping onto the floor, Lily asking what had happened, and James telling her that the mobile phone had broken and Lily running after him all around the house and screaming at the top of her voice.

**Author's Note: Just click that little purple button on the left and leave a review! Please!**


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